Real-Teacher Reasoning

An important part of teaching is infusing technology into lesson plans. For this assignment, you may work with a group to design a lesson plan that creatively incorporates technology and differentiation to foster better understanding of the content being presented. Your lesson must include at least one technology resource and at least one high-quality text or book in the content area you have selected. You will write a lesson plan and commentary following the edTPA-style format discussed in class, and you will teach a portion of your lesson in class.

What do I need to turn in?

Part 1: Lesson Plan

 Each group will submit one electronic document via Google Classroom that will contain the full Lesson Plan and the Planning Commentary. For what to include in the Lesson Plan, please follow the edTPA-style template.

Part 2: Commentary

Planning Commentary should contain the following sections:

Central Focus: Describe the central focus and main purpose for the content you will teach in the lesson.

Essential Strategy: Essential strategies are strategies that can help students to learn effectively. Some examples include: close reading, visualization, questioning the author, comparing & contrasting, the stages of writing (planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing), making predictions, summarizing, sequencing, and word study. 

1. Describe the essential strategy you selected and explain how the strategy helps your students learn the central focus. 
2. Describe the connection to literacy (reading and/or writing) your lesson demonstrates. 

Instructional Methods: Instructional methods are ways of teaching content, not to be confused with essential strategies. Some examples include: think alouds, modeling, read alouds, direct instruction, shared writing, guided reading, think-pair-share, class discussion, cooperative learning (like jigsaw), reciprocal teaching, or simulations.

1. Describe the instructional methods you planned in your lesson.
2. Describe the instructional materials you plan to use in teaching. This can be handouts, slides, web resources, books, videos, or any other materials needed.

Technology Incorporation: Describe how you have incorporated technology into your lesson. How will students interact with technology? How will the teacher utilize technology in instruction? Justify how your technology choices enhance the lesson design.

Supporting Student Learning: Describe and justify why your planned instruction is appropriate for all learners. Describe how you plan to help students who need more support.
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Assessment: Describe your planned assessment. Explain how your assessment will provide evidence that students can use the strategy you taught.

Lesson Plan and Commentary Sentence Frames

Part 3: In-Class Presentation

Each group will also teach a portion of their lesson in class, no more than 15 minutes. The teaching demo will be included in the assignment grade.

How will I be graded?

Digital Tools and Lesson Plan 33%

Presentation 17%

​Overall Quality 17%

​Commentary Quality 33%

Project is worth 20% of overall course score.

Exemplars of Actual, 100% Human Work

Derek and Andrew did some amazing work with this lesson plan about the arms race! Their entire semester was history themed, through the lens of "races," so it made for some very pretty digital portfolios. Their lesson presentation itself was engaging, their plan was clear, and their commentary shared exactly the kind of thought and reasoning that aspiring teachers should work towards.

Al's lesson plan about the Near Eastern civilizations was so well researched and written that it had to receive 100%. While it might have been slightly too dense for the 6th grade level students at whom it was targeted, the resources, quality of writing, and how well thought out every aspect was earned this lesson plan a spot on our website.

Aly's lesson plan was an amazing example of how to teach consent to second grade students. Truth be told, I thought it was an impossible task, and worried that she couldn't pull it off. It ended up being one of the best lesson plan presentations ever, and I planned to bring her into DMS to present to my 8th graders, but then the world shut down because of COVID.

Olivia's work stands out as some of the most grounded in educational methodology. Students attending this lesson will have fun by making a turkey, and not even realize that they're knee deep in an incredibly well thought out vocabulary activity.

Sara Woods, Stacy Williams, and Breeanna Sprankle created the exemplary lesson presentation to the left, and wrote a superb lesson plan and commentary to support their thinking during the spring semester of 2018.

Meagan Genco, Jeff Hitchcock, and Kaitlin Huyler wrote this excellent lesson plan and commentary during the spring 2018 semester. While their digital materials weren't the strongest, and I don't actually have a copy of their presentation anymore, the thought and skill that went into crafting and delivering their lesson was great. Read up, and learn.

Three unnamed students (I didn't get their permission to print their work here, and as such, they shall remain anonymous,) produced this exemplary lesson plan and commentary about rhyming for speech pathologists. Their presentation was flawless, but presented from a tablet via document camera, so I cannot publish it, but feel free to click any of the links in this document, or the image to the left to view their work.

This lesson plan and commentary about Ellis Island, produced by Stephanie Arocho, is among the best I've ever seen. The thought and process the went into its creation beggars belief, and it is among the most "scalable" technology tools that I've observed.